BANGKOK (AP) — Supporters of Myanmar’s jailed, deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi staged peaceful, flower-themed protests Wednesday to mark her 79th birthday, with some taking to the streets in defiance of the military government’s crackdown.
Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who fought military rule for decades, was arrested on February 1, 2021 when the military took power from her elected government. She is serving a 27-year prison sentence on what are widely seen as charges designed to keep her from political activity.
She is one of more than 20,600 people currently detained for resisting military rule, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents arrests.
Pro-democracy street protests in honor of Suu Kyi were held openly on Wednesday in parts of the country not under the military’s control, including in the Sagaing and Magway regions of central Myanmar, and Tanintharyi in the south, as well as in the state Kachin in southern Myanmar. north.
Images on social media showed protesters holding Suu Kyi’s photo and banners reading “Congratulations, Steel Rose” and “The Steel Roses will retaliate against the junta’s oppression without giving in,” referring to one of the nicknames of their hero and adopted the nickname for themselves.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military took power in 2021, sparking nationwide peaceful protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to civil war.
However, nonviolent protests remain popular, both online and on the ground. They are often coordinated around themes, such as a flower strike.
A common practice is posting self-portraits online along with symbols of the strike or Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, but with faces hidden to avoid identification by authorities.
In the southern Tanintharyi region, hundreds of demonstrators in Dawei district displayed Suu Kyi’s famous slogan: “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
Min Lwin Oo, a leader of the Democracy Movement Strike Committee (Dawei), told The Associated Press that the quote was intended to inspire people to have courage and not fear in carrying out a revolution against the military dictatorship.
Young people held more discreet protests in the major cities of Yangon and Mandalay, where it is not unusual for security forces to use force to break up demonstrations and make arrests.
Eleven Media, a news outlet that has good relations with the military government, reported that 22 people were arrested in Mandalay for alleged involvement in the flower strike.
Tayzar San, a prominent leader of the opposition General Strike Coordination Body that organized the strike, said the people’s participation proved that even after three years under oppressive military rule, the revolutionary spirit could not be suppressed.
Kim Aris, Suu Kyi’s youngest son who lives in London, had urged people to celebrate his mother’s birthday by supporting humanitarian aid campaigns.
“Currently, people who love her want to give her flowers and cakes as birthday gifts, but she is in a situation where she is not allowed to accept it,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
Therefore, her admirers should do as much as possible to help with humanitarian aid, he said.
“I think this will be my mother’s most wanted birthday present,” Aris said.
The United Nations estimates that at least three million people in Myanmar have been left homeless by conflict in the past three years and are in urgent need of assistance.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which dissolved the military government last year, released a statement on its Facebook page on Wednesday calling for the release of all detained political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.
Several Western embassies posted photos of roses and jasmine on their social media pages, and some also published statements calling for the release of her and all political prisoners.
